Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein met with reporters (including The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma) on Monday to discuss a number of hot stove-related subjects. The highlights…

Epstein alluded to the team’s agreement with Brandon Morrow without officially making a confirmation, saying the Cubs were “pretty close” to the signing. The pitcher in question was described as someone the Cubs would be “comfortable” using as a closer, though “he’s the type of team player that would be willing to take any role depending on what the rest of the team looks like.”

In that vein, the Cubs could acquire a more established closer, and a reunion with Wade Davis is still a possibility. Epstein said he planned to meet with Davis’ agent either during the Winter Meetings or just after. Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times tweeted earlier today that the Cubs were open to bringing Davis back if an “affordable” deal could be worked out. MLBTR predicted Davis for a four-year, $60MM free agent contract this winter, which might fall outside of the Cubs’ comfort zone if they can land a less-pricey arm to further reinforce their bullpen.

Epstein downplayed any Kyle Schwarber trade rumors, saying that “he’s always been someone that teams have had an interest in, I guess. But we have probably the most interest.” Reports from earlier this week identified the Red Sox as a team interested in the young slugger.

The Cubs will stay in touch with Scott Boras about Jake Arrieta in case there’s any path to the free agent righty returning to Wrigley Field. It has been widely assumed that Arrieta would be signing elsewhere this winter, as the Cubs have already signed Tyler Chatwood to join Kyle Hendricks, Jon Lester, and Jose Quintana in the rotation, and have been heavily linked to Alex Cobb. Still, given the number of other teams pursuing Cobb, it makes sense that Chicago would remain open to Arrieta, even if his price tag would be significantly higher.

Of course, the Cubs almost made another big rotation splash as they were one of the seven finalists for Shohei Ohtani’s services. Epstein was proud of his team’s presentation to Ohtani and came away impressed by how the Japanese star handled himself in meetings with Cubs officials. Even getting into the final seven was an accomplishment in Epstein’s eyes, as the Cubs were neither a West Coast team or an AL team that could offer Ohtani DH at-bats.

Chicago was also one of the four teams Giancarlo Stanton would’ve waived his no-trade clause to join, though it doesn’t seem talks got very far between the Cubs and Marlins before Stanton was dealt to the Yankees. “There wasn’t much interaction given the makeup of our roster, our future payroll commitments and some plans that we have,” Epstein said. “Great player and great opportunity, but not necessarily the right one for us at the time.”

Please no arrieta or Davis.. for the price of Davis they can sign Reed and McGee..

A pen of McGee, Reed, morrow and holdovers sounds better than a pen of Davis and morrow and holdovers

Or they could even trade for colome instead of one of them which I also would like because he’s more of a for sure thing.

Why is nobody talking about the cubs leadoff hitter? Almora isn’t ready for that yet. They need someone there.
I almost think they have to make a trade for a center fielder.. long shot of schwarbs and almora for benintendi? Or maybe trade almora and a couple prospects for someone else.

Nobody is talking about the leadoff hitter because Epstein has said time and again that the Cubs won’t be forced into getting a traditional leadoff hitter. They scored over 800 runs last season without one, and if they went out and got one, where would he play? The outfield is already crowded. So is the infield. You’re not going to downgrade just because you get stuck in the box in a traditional mindset.

And what’s wrong with Almora leading off? There aren’t many Ricky Hendersons or Tim Raines. Or even Dexter Fowlers or Bob Deniers for that matter. Ideally you’d want .370 on base guy but you can win without a great
leadoff hitter. KC won the WS with Alcides freaken Escobar leading off a lot and he was probably one of bottom 10 % offensive players in MLB

Completely agree, but I’ll also say the leadoff hitter remains a table setter for the 2-4 batters in the game…so the makeup of the leadoff hitter still remains relevant. On the season they will also receive more AB as well. The 1 slot will always favor high OBP with baserunning ability being paramount.

I gorget what website it was, but somebody ran a bunch of simulations and came to the conclusion that Bryant should bat leadoff…
He’s fast, selective at the plate, and it would get him more ABs per game.

If they went out and got a traditional leadoff hitter or even someone who was better than the people they have who isn’t traditional, he’d play where ever he belongs. Just because you have Kyle Schwarber or Albert Almora on your roster does not mean they are entitled to play. Personally, I’d go out and do everything within reason possible to land Yelich. And I’d give up Schwarber to try and get him. Schwarber, at this stage, is big power bat you play against right handed pitching that you remove from the game late if you are winning because he’s a defensive liability. Emotion be damned, he’s surplus to needs. Yelich meanwhile is a career .369 on base machine with some power that you can count on hitting .280. Did I mention he’s a plus fielder and has 5 years of control left. You take all of his salary and you ship Schwarber and a couple of other pieces to them (Maples, Tseng, etc.) and you never look back.

I like Happ as our leadoff hitter if he can hit enough to stay in the lineup (almost) everyday.
Zo could handle the job on days Happ sits. I’m hoping Zo takes Happ under his wing and Ian can eventually take his place as a 2B/super-utility switch hitter. Happ actually runs quite well too. Contreras isnt a terrible option to leadoff as well. Almora is definitely not a great choice- he’s a very aggressive hitter in the Starlin Castro mold. He works better at the bottom of the order, IMO.

I like the idea of Happ as the leadoff batter. I recall a stretch this year when he led off (maybe for a week) and he did real well. No, not blazing speed but good contact, power, etc. I would like to see them try this for a bit.

Get one more starter. (Hopefully Cobb) and 1 middle relief and Holland or Davis. Re-signing jon jay would be nice too. They need someone to step up as the lead off man. Shame they can’t reverse age and tben sign Kenny Lofton.

Why are fans wanting Cobb so bad? Why pay a guy 16-18 mil. per year who’s gonna be your #4, has had a major arm injury, and who’s ERA, H/9, and HR/9 rates have all gone up since 2012? It would make more sense to go out and trade for controllable pitcher such as Archer. He’s locked up for a few years, at a lower price tag than Cobb, and has established himself as a strong #3 with the stuff to be a good #2. Sure it’s gonna cost you Baez and some prospects or Baez and Schwarber but you’re getting a much better pitcher who’s younger and costs less and BETTER! We need to replace Arrieta with something or there will be no Champagne being spilled in Chicago next fall

Cobb’s numbers in the NL, away from the AL East would look pretty good. He’s 2 years removed from TJ surgery, so he might get his changeup feel back, if that happens, watch out- he’s a number 2 or 3 fully healthy and a buy low at 15 mil aav.

However, for us casual fans, it has to give us pause that every team in the AL East (the teams who have faced him most!!!) are trying to sign him. That should tell you something, and it has challenged me, as I used to agree with that sentiment.

Archer is going on 29 and is highly in demand. I absolutely do not want to trade multiple pieces of the MLB roster to acquire him, especially with all the interested teams.

Other thing to remember with Cobb, is that not only do Maddon and Hickey know him well (as with Archer), but Jim Benedict is a huge steal for the Fins FO this off-season and is highly regarded for making pitchers great again/better…

I do like the idea of signing Cobb to fill out the rotation, but I’m a little concerned about buyer’s remorse. From what we learned about EE last year, we have no idea just yet how much Darvish or Arrieta would cost. I would hate to close that door and maybe find ourselves sometime in January in a situation where Arrieta’s price tag drops enough to make it seem like a good idea, but the Cubs already have filled out the starting 5.